Bengaluru: A student-led Global Climate Strike is back to push governments to declare a climate emergency to combat agents and activities that lead to environmental breakdown.
The Bengaluru edition of the strike, called by FridaysForFuture worldwide, was held in front of Town Hall. Over 70 countries from across the world are taking part.
The Global Climate Strike began as a movement in 2018 after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish Parliament every school day for three weeks to protest against lack of action on climate crisis by governments. The Friday strike was to show solidarity with India’s Greta – Ridhima Pandey, who petitioned against the government’s apathy towards climate change at the National Green Tribunal.
Mr Ishan Agarwal, Co-Facilitator, Extinction Rebellion, told Deccan Chronicle, “We are in an ecological crisis. We need to save the dying species and all the citizens of our country from extreme climatic conditions. I support Ridhima Pandey. This student-led movement will also present a list of 8-10 demands, largely focusing on the depleting lakes, real-estate development and reducing tree cover.”
Retail Rebellion: ‘Say No To Fast Fashion’
A part of the protest, ‘Retail Rebellion’, is to take a pledge to avoid hyper consumption which leads to over-utilisation of resources and increase in waste generation.
Ms Priyanka Abhishek, Mrs. India 2019-20 and Mrs. Planet 2019-20, said, “The fashion industry exploits natural resources and water is a major resource that is wasted. For example, to manufacture one T-shirt, it approximately takes 2,700 litres of drinking water. This is equivalent to the drinking water requirements of a person for two whole years. We should boycott buying new clothes for a certain period. This is our way of protesting against the fast-moving fashion industry to protect Mother Earth.”
This worldwide protest by students and environment support groups is to press governments to take action to stop climate change, prior to the United Nations climate change conference scheduled to commence on December 2, 2019 in Chile, South America.
